The world's shipping industry is experiencing a period of strong growth, with seaborne trade at a record level of 6.6 billion tons in 2004 and set to increase at 4% per year to 2010. The English Channel is the world's busiest shipping area, with a ship passing through the Strait of Dover on average every three minutes. The GLAs have an essential role to play around the British Isles.

The UK Government has championed the new e-Navigation concept based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) that is intended to set international standards to make safe navigation easier and cheaper. Physical AtoN (principally buoys and lights) will always be needed to provide a reversionary capability because of the inevitable vulnerabilities of GNSS.

eLoran is needed both to ensure safety in a higher risk environment and to deliver a radionavigation dividend, cost savings that result from the introduction of radionavigation services and their uptake in the maritime sector.

eLoran is a low frequency, terrestrial navigation system operating at 100kHz and synchronised to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). It is intended to meet the required navigation performance parameters for a range of timing and transport operations including marine general navigation.

Initial differential eLoran trials conducted at Harwich in April of this year and using the GLAs' test transmitter at Rugby have demonstrated horizontal positioning accuracies better than 9m with 95% confidence using modern, miniaturised eLoran receivers. This puts eLoran on the same basis as single frequency GPS or Galileo.

The UK Government's enthusiasm for e-Loran has, however, been challenged in the House of Commons by opposition Conservative MP Julian Brazier, who warned that extreme conditions such as freak electrical storms or even terrorist activity could lead to catastrophic failure of the new technology, in which case a 'rush' to implement it and a loss of traditional systems may be regretted.

The former offshore sailor also expressed concern that seafarers from flag of convenience states may lack AIS training and, in some instances, a sufficient working knowledge of the English language.

MJInformation No: 22110